Weary of summer? Think cold soup

Soup of the Evening, Beautiful Soup is a Web site that owes its mellifluous name to the Mock Turtle's song in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (www.geocities.com/NapaValley/6188/hpsoup.html). Nor do its literary associations end there; at this site, it's possible by clicking on Food Tales to learn, for instance, what Samuel Johnson thought of cucumbers (not much).

But for the main reason to know about this site as summer clings, click on Cold Soups. The menu of tempting recipes includes vichyssoise, of course, but also Czech blueberry soup (it calls for 1 1/2 cups sour cream, but substituting yogurt would make it lighter); lime-cucumber soup with a kick (from tequila); golden gazpacho (made with cantaloupe, yellow peppers and yogurt), and strawberry balsamic soup (it includes a quart of strawberries, orange and lemon zest, Grand Marnier and balsamic vinegar).Unfortunately, when you call up this site with Netscape, a pesky rectangular window of advertisements pops up with it. Just swat it on the X in its upper right-hand corner. Whatever you do, don't minimize it, or it will fall to your tool bar and multiply.